Well I had another WOW moment this morning. When I woke up I was like, wow, my trip is almost over! So today is my last full day in Berlin and for tomorrow I have a fairly long train ride from Berlin to Frankfurt and won’t get there until late afternoon. I’m just heading there to stay overnight before my flight back to the States in the morning. So this will be my last email. Wow, has it been an adventure!
So today I took it easy and slept in and had a leisure breakfast. Then just bee-bopped around town to see a few sites I hadn’t seen up close. I also toured the Reichstag (German Parliament). When I read that Angela Merkel was leaving soon, I figured I should at least stop by and say hi! Lol.
I’ll have to admit that Berlin doesn’t have the great architecture of some of the other cities I visited but it does have a lot of Nazi, World War II, and Cold War history and I believe deserves to be on most people’s European trip list. As for the pictures…
The first one is their City Hall or Rathaus. I’m always amazed by how big and beautiful the European town halls are.
Next is St Nikolai Church, the oldest church in Berlin (you knew I had to sneak at least one more church in!). It was built between 1220 and 1230.
Next is the Marienkirche (with the TV Tower doing a photo bomb on it! Dang commies!). The church, built in 1292, was originally a Roman Catholic church, but has been a Lutheran Church since the Prussian Union of churches in 1817.
Next, I figured since I see it everywhere I go, I thought I’d actually come to the base of the TV Tower and take a pic. It’s actually the tallest free standing building in main land Europe.
Next is the main post office. That’s another building that the Europeans build pretty fancy. But then again the US has some pretty cool main Post Office buildings too.
Next is the New Synagogue. It was built in 1859 as the main synagogue of the Berlin Jewish community. Because of its splendid eastern Moorish style and resemblance to the Alhambra in Grenada, Spain, it is an important architectural monument of the second half of the 19th century in Berlin.
And the last two are both the inside and outside of the top of the Reichstag building. And no, Angela Merkel never came out to shake my hand!
Well that’s all the pics. For those that have been with me on these journeys for the past several years, you know I can tend to get a little philosophical in the last one but I’ll try not to get too deep. Being originally from Pittsburgh, I’ve been reading a lot about the killing that took place at the synagogue. And with me being here and having visited many Jewish synagogues, memorials, and gone to three different concentration camps where the Jewish people have been mass murdered just because they’re Jewish, it’s really made me think about Anti-Semitism and frankly all hate toward another group of people just because they’re different than certain other people. I’m not the first to make this observation but I truly believe if we all travel more and interact with people different than us, that any prejudices we may have will fade away. So I’d suggest that even if you can’t travel to a whole different country, travel to another part of your state or county or even within your own town where some people aren’t like you. Go have dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant. Go to a Mexican bakery. Go hang out at a park with teenage skateboarders. And just watch and observe. They’re all just like us, they just look different (especially the teenage skateboarders! Lol). If everybody in the world did that, I think we’d have a lot less hate. The one thing that does get reinforced to me every time I travel overseas is that we live in the greatest country in the world.
So lastly I want to thank all of you for traveling along with me. Not sure when my next big trip will be but probably soon. And if anyone is planning a trip to Europe, feel free to reach out and I’d be glad to share my thoughts. Of course my first recommendation is to buy the Rick Steves travel guide, then you’re 90% there!
Take care.
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 